


Geronimo

by beer_good



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Childhood Memories, Coma, Dreams, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-19
Updated: 2014-10-19
Packaged: 2018-02-21 20:10:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2480858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beer_good/pseuds/beer_good
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Faith, between season 3 and season 4. "When I was a kid, a couple of miles outside of Boston there was this quarry..."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Geronimo

**Geronimo**

The sun is so bright up here, but it's cold as hell. She squints towards the white sky; funny, didn't sunlight use to be warm? Yeah, she definitely remembers that

_it used to be warm. Last time she was up here. She remembers being more scared than she let on; after all, everyone knew about that kid (always "my brother's classmate" or "my cousin knew this guy" or something, never a name) who tried jumping off the highest rock and got smashed into spaghetti sauce on a cliff jutting out halfway down. There were a bunch of kids surrounding the pool at the bottom, yelling for her to jump, one or two refusing to look. Then she jumped, and it was so easy. Just the wind rushing past her, her belly tingling with speed and a big splash at the bottom of the quarry and water and darkness and then she was kicking off the bottom and the sun was back, warm on her face, and the kids were cheering and one of them put his hand out to help her out but she climbed out by herself and punched the sky, punched a big fucking HOLE in the sky. For a couple of hot summer weeks, she was "that girl who jumped the 40-foot rock" and_

she's up here again and it's a lot higher. Yeah. Definitely. And there are no kids down there, just him and a couple of things floating in the water. Gotta try not to land on them, looks like it might hurt. Plus, stains like that are hard to get out of – shouldn't she be wearing a bathing suit? Never tried swimming in leather pants. Hell, at least lose the jacket. Only it's hard to work it around the

_(You're about to get it back)_

She gazes down past the handle (it's weird how it sticks out of her belly like that, but she'll worry about that afterwards), all the way down. He's standing there, smiling, impossibly trusting her, depending on her. His hand is extended, ready to pull her out after she lands in the deep, dark, reflecting pool of water. Only the sunlight is glittering gold and red on the surface, drifting together into... oh yeah. Of course she has to be here, too. There's always got to be that one kid down there who wants to see you fail, who wishes she dared to do this herself. "You should get your ass up here, B. Quite the view."

No answer.

"What's the matter?" She throws her arms out, grinning against the cold light, feeling like that statue they stuck on some mountain in Brazil. "All that killing, you afraid to die?"

That gets a reaction. "Yeah. It scares me. Faith, you're hurting people. You're hurting yourself."

"You remember. Good. Wouldn't want you to forget." She takes one more step towards the edge of the rock. Then Buffy's right beside her, somehow, even though there should only be room for one up here. "What? You gonna push me? No need. I've been doing this since forever. Besides, if you're up here - not really that keen on staying, y'know?"

"You don't have to do this."

"Like hell I don't. You know how we work; anything you can't do I can do badder and I can't do anything better than you. 'Sides, this is my dream, not yours, you don't get to kill me here. Get outta my way."

"I'm not in your way. I just wonder why."

"Why what?"

"If you're so bad, why did you punch me _onto_ the roof and not _off_ it?"

Faith doesn't answer. Doesn't look up, down, left or right, just straight ahead as she takes one last step. "GERONIMO!"

In a hospital bed, between white sheets, bathed in fluorescent light, a girl is falling, tumbling, spinning in mid-air. The feeding tube trickles slowly as she stares at the black abyss below, the bright sun above, spinning faster and blurring together, wind howling in her ears, waiting to see where she'll land. 


End file.
